How Would You Rebuild A Club?

If football clubs were razed to the ground and had to be rebuilt, how would you develop players and what programmes would you add?

I’m not suggesting that all clubs need to start anew or, that all clubs are doing player development incorrectly. I wanted to do a thought experiment and see how far diverged I would be from the average club structure. Without going into the realm of completely fantasy by suggesting the U10s have a full time analyst and nutritionist of their own, I will try to keep my ideas as broad and curriculum based as possible.

I think the overarching ideology of a football club can be summed up by, “Make it fun, make them good, make it last.” These, if I were to build from scratch, would be the 3 phases within a players youth development and would hopefully transition into senior football. When I say senior football I don’t necessarily mean professional football. If a club is going to be an active and contributing member of a community, there needs to be a recognition of differing levels of play however, that doesn’t mean that the goal for every kid taking their first kick of a ball can’t be the exact same – get them to reach their potential to the fullest, whatever that is.

Make It Fun

The first phase of my theoretical plan would be for 5 – 7 year olds. I’m sure there are many clubs that offer programmes for children younger than this but, in my opinion, this is less football development and more gross motor skill development. Whilst the two are not mutually exclusive, I think there should be an amount of time that kids just play; play without the structure and confines of a specific sport for a specific time, on a specific number of days per week. Take your kid to the park, let them run, jump, fall, climb, swing and learn how to move. There is another motive for me in suggesting this start age, as a coach who has worked with ‘littlies’, younger than school age is purely cheap baby sitting for some parents (and even some 5-7 year old fall into this category). I’ve had many a session plan terrorised by one child having a meltdown whilst the others want to take part in whatever game is set up. It’s not fair to those kids, the coach left to deal with the rest of the group, or the coach dealing with the temper tantrum. I know many clubs have an ‘on site’ policy where parents must remain at the field but hey, this is my imaginary club so pre-5s are out!

The whole purpose of this phase is to have players spend as much time with a ball as possible. Learning how to get a ball from A to B with as many parts of the body as possible. How does the ball move if you do X? Can you do that with both feet? Is there a different way to make the ball do the same thing? One important point to remember with players of this age is that they are very self-centred (like many senior pros! Haha) but it is normally all about “Me and MY ball.” As much time on the ball as possible, with both feet, learning and exploring different ways of doing things, and being given individual tasks to achieve is how I would structure the majority of the curriculum for this age. Transitioning to small group tasks and games when the players are 7 years old.

I cannot forget to include the physical side of things too. I would include chasing games like tag, or ball specific speed and agility games that will hopefully aid the development of that unstructured play time that I previously mentioned. Something that interests me, and I haven’t had experience with it, is the introduction of size 5 footballs for all ages in Ireland. The balls are weighted differently for different ages but I am intrigued to see how this pans out over time and if the Irish see a marked difference for various sizes to one size. How will this contrast with countries that use futsal as their development tool?

Summary: As many touches on the ball as possible with both feet, exploring different ways to manipulate the movement of the ball and introducing small group tasks and games towards the end of the phase.

Make Them Good

The next phase of youth development, for me, is the 8-12 year old age bracket. This is often considered the ‘Golden Age of Learning’ (The cover photo for this article is taken from FIFA’s own Youth Football resource). To make players “good” comes down to something that is much easier to write than to do. Create technically effective players who are good decision makers and strong creatively. Easy right? 

In the first phase of this plan I want to give players a good foundation of technical play with both feet so that moving into the second phase, I can step away from basic techniques and start giving players problems to solve and challenges to overcome. This doesn’t mean a complete departure from technical coaching as this is something I would continue throughout a player’s career. One of the best pieces of coaching advice I ever heard was, “The more targets a player has to score, the more decisions they have to make.” Brilliant and simple in my opinion. Give players more than one target and let them figure out which one is the best to try and score in. The more you play games with multiple goals, target, ways of scoring, the more players will have to make decisions and; hopefully, the better they will become at making those decisions. 

But how do you make players creative? One of the best ways I have found to bring out the creativity in players is by making them play against an overload or by giving them an almost impossible task. This can be as simple as having 1 attacker against 2 defenders, or challenging players to go from one side of the 18 yard box to the other keeping the ball off the ground, in groups of 5, holding hands and they only have one touch per player each time they touch the ball. There are thousands of ways to get players thinking creatively, making decisions and keeping it fun as well.

I’ve never met a player that didn’t like improving. It didn’t matter what part of their game it was, if they could see something improving (especially if there was a plateau in development or hurdle that took time to overcome) there would be a renewed effort to continue that development. This push for progression has been more evident to me in players that have struggled, more than those that have found certain techniques easy to achieve.

My point of “Make Them Good” is not aimed at making everyone a world class athlete. Some players just don’t have certain elements required to get to that level or even a professional level of play however; that is not the point of this phase. The point is to put players on a path that will allow them to reach their maximum potential. By installing in them a passion for the game at a young age, then, allowing them to enjoy the game by playing it, at whatever level, I hope to create a foundation that will last long after the youth section of a player’s career.

Summary: Place players in as many decision making environments as possible. Stack the odds against them to bring out creative solutions to difficult challenges while continuing technical coaching and developing the ideas of group tasks and introducing simple systems of play.

Make It Last

Many football clubs, in many countries around the world see a significant drop off in player numbers around the age of 15. This is due to a number of reasons, wide and varied in their origin but the two that I have found most troubling are, “I stopped liking the game.” and “There was too much pressure.” This second one has two common roots amongst the players I have dealt with; the first is pressure within the game. Pressure to perform from the player themselves, coaches or parents. The second is pressure outwith the game. Commonly this comes from parents impressing upon players an expectation to do well in school or, to perform at a high level in another sport or with a musical instrument.

So, how can clubs reduce that pressure from their end of the situation? One solution is to create multiple levels of play at each age group, or age bracket. I worked with a club in Australia who had 3 divisions for most ages. Division 1 was for players wanting competitive football, trying to develop themselves in an attempt to move up to the adult state league after the U18 season. Division 2 was aimed at players who wanted competitive football and an environment to work on themselves in an effort to progress to Division 1. Many of these players played Division 1 or 2 right up until they stopped playing, or into the ‘Masters’ (Over 35) age group. Division 3 was purely social football. Players who wanted a kick about friends and didn’t take themselves too seriously or the result at the end of the game. It was a great ecosystem not only for the club but, for the region as a whole. This is something I would have in my imaginary new club.

What could we do about players not enjoying the game? By allowing players to move levels will be one step towards keeping them engaged with the game, another is by exposing them to new and different experiences. A big piece of football is networking and, one of the biggest advantages clubs in America, Australia, Canada etc. have over those in Europe is the fact they are (without trying to be too disrespectful) not top tier football nations. I’ve found that clubs are more willing to link with or, allow greater access to their facilities, coaches and knowledge base with associations and clubs from leagues or countries that aren’t direct competitors. It may also allow them to gain market space in different sectors, sell more shirts and advertising for a higher price. So, that is a long winded way of saying that I would connect with a European club, someone that shares something in common with your club. That may be ethnic background, shared development philosophy, a first team player that comes from your club’s country, region or city; any one of a whole host of things – it might even be the club you supported as a kid but, I would hesitate to just go with the biggest brand. See if the club can build a bespoke programme for you, host a camp or tournament. Get your players to go and see their first team play and maybe even meet the players they see on tv and play with in FIFA.

A trip overseas can go a long way to keeping players engaged but is there something that clubs could do that may be more practical and cheaper? Change coaches. I don’t mean fire a youth team coach during a season but, something that I have found to be more common outside of Europe than within is a coach moving with a team for the entirety of the youth cycle. This is commonly due to a parent-coach being involved with their child’s team each year their child plays. In my opinion, this is not ideal. Parent-coaches are often volunteers who have other jobs and have not specialised as coaches. Even full time professionals have age ranges that they are better at coaching. This should not be viewed as a criticism of volunteers but used to strengthen the club’s coaching quality, and also help keep players learning from different sources and exposed to new ideas.

Providing a range of options for players moving into adult football is an absolute requirement to “make it last”. It may be multiple divisions, over 35, over 50 teams, futsal, walking football, weekend tournaments, or drop in sessions. All these programmes can be implemented over time and with a positive effect to the club’s bottom line; if done properly.

Summary: Understand the challenges that face your players and be proactive in providing solutions to ease pressure or keep them engaged. Utilise coaches in their best age brackets and keep players learning from different sources to try and keep them hungry to learn more. Reach out to larger clubs and create partnerships, give players something to look forward to or aspire to. Finally, expand your clubs offerings to those in senior football and beyond the ‘normal’ playing pathway. Be creative in your offerings and develop yourself into a true cradle to grave club.

My ideas are not ground breaking and I do feel that many clubs do a good job of creating positive football environments; there are clubs who do all the things I would do if I were to rebuild a club from scratch. The one thing I would try to get more clubs to do is to listen to their full time staff members (or seek out consultants). Listen to the people that have studied the game, that know it better than you do and, by all means ask “Why?” but do it in an open and honest manner in a bid to learn from them. Steve Jobs said, "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”